- HoneyHat

What is Email List Cleaning?

Email list cleaning – also called email scrubbing – is the process of removing outdated emails, spam accounts, and disengaged contacts from your lists to increase your engagement rates and return-on-investment.

There are a number of email services, such as Moosend and Mailchimp, that offer list cleaning tools. But there are also stand-alone solutions to help marketers maintain clean lists with a high delivery rate. Below you will find a section dedicated to them.

Why should I clean my email list?

Maintaining a clean list of emails will not only ensure a high rate of engagement, but it will also improve your inbox position. Your audience will receive your emails as you have a high deliverability rate.

Source

How do you “dirty up” your email list? There are many reasons why this happens. Human error, duplicate email, invalid emails addresses, spam accounts and inactive subscribers are the most common.

You will be able to achieve higher conversion rates by removing “bad” email addresses. Unchecked databases can affect your deliverability, but that’s not the only issue. Neglecting to regularly clean your email database will eventually lead to:

You can damage your sender reputation (the score that you receive from Internet Service Providers, ISPs).
Multiple email bounces are the result.
Your lead generation efforts will be negatively affected if you increase your email marketing costs.
Increased spam complaints will negatively impact your delivery
You have a high bounce-rate and you unsubscribe.

You can avoid these issues by cleaning your email. This will improve the deliverability metric and increase click-throughs, as well as open rates. If email providers such as Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo believe that you are spamming, they will send your emails to the spam folder.

If you’re receiving multiple spam complaints and notice that your open and click through rates are low, you should purge your email list.

You’ll discover some simple ways to clean up your email. Let’s see!

1. Plan your list-cleaning process

Let’s begin with a simple question: how often should you clean up your email list. You should reconsider your thinking if you think you only need to clean it once in a blue moon. Cleaning your contacts list requires effort and time. You should check your contact list frequently as it grows to make sure that there are no bad email addresses.

How often should you do this? If your email list is growing at a rapid rate, then an email scrub performed every two months will help you keep your contacts organized. You should always review your metrics (opens, bounces) in order to decide if you need to perform an urgent email scrub, or increase the frequency.

It is best to plan your process before you begin. Here’s how to make it effective:

Create a regular list cleaning schedule
Dedicate people to the task
You need the right tools and resources to get it done

Frequency and consistency are key to a successful email list cleansing process. To succeed, first you need to realize that this is not a one-time task but a continuous process.

Create a calendar to remind you and your team of the need to organize your contacts. Make sure you create one and include it in your Email Marketing Calendar.

2. Use double opt-in

It can be difficult to identify and remove “bad email address” from your contact list. What if you could minimize the number invalid or duplicate contact right from the beginning?

Setting up a double-opt-in process will allow you to validate your email address without the need for additional tools. You can use the double opt-in process and ask your new subscribers for their email addresses to be confirmed, as Clothing has done:

This step is required to prevent adding spam or unconfirmed email addresses to your list. Unfortunately, many businesses don’t use double opt-in. This is especially true in the US where GDPR laws are not in place. Double opt-in is an additional step, but it’s worth it to reduce the number of “bad” emails that end up on your list.

Adopting an email confirmation message will help you create a list-building process which will save you time and effort in removing fake or duplicate email addresses.

3. Unengaged subscribers should be given a specific criteria

How do you define an unengaged subscriber now? To do this, you will need to define what “disengaged”, means.

A recipient who engages with your marketing emails, for example, is likely to be interested in you. A recipient who opens only 20% of your emails may not be interested in your business.

To perform a successful list cleaning, you must first establish specific criteria for identifying subscribers with low engagement.

When you find them you can:

Remove duplicate email addresses by starting the process
Spam filters will not affect your delivery if you remove subscribers who have marked you as spam.
Separate your soft bounces from your hard bounces.

You can perform more efficient email scrubs if you accurately identify your audience. The above process allows you to discover patterns, filter your contacts and create the best strategy for improving your email list hygiene.

4. Improve your segments

Segmenting the audience to deliver targeted content is one of most important list building techniques. You can segment your customers and subscribers based on various criteria such as their location, demographics and more.

Did you know you can divide your audience according to their email behavior? You can, for example, group non-openers into a new group and send them specific messages in order to determine whether or not they will engage with your campaign.

You can also generate reports that show which email addresses bounced. You should remove the hard bounces from your list immediately. If it is a soft bounce you can send them another email to see if their inbox has been full or if the server was down.

To improve your Email List Management, you must pay attention to your segments. Reorganizing your contacts will also help to boost your email metrics. Make sure you revisit them often to ensure that you are delivering the right content to your audience!

5. Re-engagement campaigns are a great way to target your audience.

The easiest way to remove non-openers is by removing disengaged users. If you want to create an effective list you will need to develop relationships with your audience.

You know that disengagement can be caused by a variety of factors, but the most common is a lack of engaging content. You may not know why your subscribers aren’t opening your latest campaigns because they’re experiencing ” Email Fatigue“.

Here’s an example from Levi’s: Here’s a sample from Levis.

Subject: For you… it’s been awhile.

Re-engagement campaigns must have the right incentives to motivate your subscribers. You can offer exclusive discounts or deals, like in the example above, or create new content to engage them again.

You can offer your subscribers the option to select the number of emails or messages they would like to receive. You will be able to improve the health of your email list and your segments.

6. Unsubscribe from emails to your benefit

Unsubscribe Button is one of the most important elements in a newsletter campaign. This link is usually located in the footer of your email and allows interested contacts to easily remove themselves from your mailing list. See this example by captions.

Your list cleaning efforts will be boosted if you make your unsubscribe button clear and visible. It also gives your disengaged audience an easy way to leave. Most email marketers place unsubscribe buttons in the footer. However, you can add them above the fold if you want to speed up the process.

Give your disengaged customers a way to unsubscribe. This is the easiest and most effective way to maintain a clean email list. Don’t forget to hide the unsubscribe button, as this will lead to spam complaints. Transparency and letting unengaged contacts go are better than being flagged as spammers or getting on a blacklist.

7. Marketing automation will keep your list clean.

Marketing automation is offered by most email service providers to help streamline your efforts. Automated workflows are a powerful tool that will allow you to target the right audience at the right moment.

This feature allows you to create sequences for cleaning email lists based on subscriber actions and specific rules. You can automate your list cleaning by creating a workflow that removes bounced emails.

You can also choose different triggers/actions for your list to stay up-to date. You can, for example, use marketing automation to improve the quality of your list by creating segments that include your contacts who do not open emails or have low engagement. A Lead Scoring Model is a great tool to help you discover the most active users, and vice versa.

To get started, you will need marketing software that has advanced functionality. Email platforms such as Moosend or Mailchimp have all the tools you need to automate your sequences and keep your list in order.

8. Use an email list cleaning tool

The above steps are all focused on actions that you can take to cleanse your email list. What if you want a helping-hand?

In this case, a list-cleaning tool can make it easier to do, especially if cleaning your list has been neglected. Email validation services such as EmailListVerify or Neverbounce offer a range of tools that can help improve deliverability, prevent spam traps and keep lists clean and healthy.

Most email cleaning services provide:

Real-time email verification
Verifiers of bulk email lists
Disposable email checkers
Integrations with popular ESPs

It’s important to note that using an email verifying tool is not a “cure” for your list, but rather a way to streamline it. A list-cleaning service will give you the tools you need to get the job done, but not the reason why your subscribers are disengaging.

You, dear marketers, must discover this for yourself and then use these insights to improve the email strategy in general.

6 Best Email List Cleaning Services To Get Started

You’ll find below some options that will help you to improve your email list cleansing efforts. Check them out!

1. EmailListVerify

EmailListVerify provides a complete email verification service that helps you to detect spam traps and hard bounces. It also improves the ROI on your email marketing campaigns. The platform has a range of features such as domain validation and SMTP verification to remove invalid domains or email addresses.

You can also use a spam trap to check your sender’s reputation and a syntax validation tool that will notify your website visitors of any errors in real time through API. You can use the MX record validater and disposable email cleaner to remove temporary email addresses from your server and verify email server records.

Pricing EmailListVerify has monthly and pay-as you-go plans. the lowest tier begins at $139/month and includes 5,000 emails/day.

2. Neverbounce

Neverbounce can be used to clean your email lists. The platform has three main features. You can upload your contact lists and Clean your list on the spot. You can also use the bulk email list cleaner to boost your sender’s reputation and your inbox placement.

Verify allows you to verify email addresses in real-time and target subscribers as they join your list. You can use the tool with your signup forms, lead generation pages, and CRM to stop “bad” email addresses from entering your list. Sync allows you to automate list cleaning through the integration of Neverbounce and your email provider.

Pricing: Try the tool free of charge or schedule a demonstration. plans are $10/month and include up to 1,000 email addresses.

3. ZeroBounce

zerobounce is a tool that promises to increase your efficiency and improve your open rate. It’s fast and secure. The platform has a number of features that can help you clean up your email list, and reach out to your audience. You can use the email validater to identify bounces, spamtraps and bots.

Zerobounce also offers an Activity Data tool that will help you to improve your email metrics. This tool will allow you to collect information about your subscribers, and ultimately improve customer engagement. The platform also offers an testing tool that allows you to test whether your emails will make it into the inbox.

Pricing: To test the tool, you can sign up for a free plan that allows 100 validations per month. plans starting at $15/month are available for 2,000 email validations.

4. QuickEmailVerification

QuickEmailVerification is a simple software solution to power up your email scrubbing efforts. This email verifier provides bulk email validation tools to email marketers as well as email validation APIs for developers. The tool’s drag-and drop function makes it easy to use. You can add your lists and begin the verification process.

The service is also ideal for large enterprises, as it can process many emails at once. Reporting is essential for your list cleaning, and QuickEmailVerficiation will let you generate reports with detailed metrics to optimize your list management.

Pricing:The service offers a freemium option for small business and startups. You will need to upgrade to a paid plan for premium features. The plan starts at $25/month and includes 500 credits per day.

5. VerifyBee

We have VerifyBee as a platform that simplifies email list verification. Copying and pasting contacts will start the process immediately. The tool will then check your email for typos, syntax errors, duplicate emails and other issues. It will also perform an MX records check to ensure accuracy.

You can also integrate the software into your CRM to verify phone numbers. VerifyBee can be used to verify your domain, CatchAll addresses, spam traps and email servers.

Pricing You can try the software for free. You will then need to upgrade your subscription to one that costs $19/month and allows you to perform 2,500 verifications per month.

6. Validation of email lists

Email Validation allows you to clean your email list at a large scale. It detects invalid email addresses, temporary email addresses, duplicate emails and spam traps, as well as removing hard-bounced email. It also verifies syntax mistakes in minutes using a verification procedure.

It boasts 99% accuracy and can process emails up to 5,000,000. Domain validation is also part of its functionality. This software can also be integrated with popular ESPs CRMs and marketing tools.

Pricing: You can start using the service for free. Paid Plans Start at $19/month and include 2,500 emails. The more you purchase, the lower the price per verification.

How to Clean your Email List with Moosend

Marketing automation allows you to clean your lists without external tools. You can automate unsubscribing inactive contacts by creating workflows that are based on the user’s engagement.

Here we will show you how to easily use Moosend’s simple tools for an effective email scrub. Let’s start!

Segmentation of email lists for cleaning

Moosend’s platform is equipped with advanced segmentation, automation and other features that will help you to increase your sales and engage your audience.

You can also create segments that are specific to your non-openers. As you can see below:

You can use this segment to identify your disengaged contacts by using rules such as “Opened Any Campaign”. Then you can export the “bad email list”, unsubscribe your contacts or reengage them.

Bulk actions allows you to delete inactive contacts or members of archive lists, as well as copy them into other lists.

Email cleaning through marketing automation

You can use Moosend’s advanced capabilities for marketing automation to streamline your process.

You can, for example, create custom sequences to unsubscribe certain contacts based on the behavior they display. Start your flow using the “When people do not open my campaigns” event:

You can then choose what action to take. In this case, it’s unsubscribing disengaged subscribers.

You can follow the steps above to create a cleaning sequence for your email list that looks like the one below. The simple version is below. You can choose additional steps and actions depending on your needs.

To access Moosend’s marketing automation tools, you simply need to create an account and import your mailing list. Then, jump into the visual workflow creator to automate the cleaning process.

What’s Next?

Cleaning your list is not a one-time task. You should clean your list regularly to avoid “bad email address.”

To get the best results, it is easiest to create and adhere to a regular email list cleaning schedule. You will then need to identify your disengaged customers, refine your segments and reengage your audience.

All of these can be done through email marketing software. Moosend is a platform that has the tools you need to succeed. If you think it’s a good fit, sign up for Moosend today to get started!

FAQs

What are the most frequently asked questions about email list cleaning? We got you covered:

1. How do I keep my email list clean?

Use an email verifyor and implement tactics such as adding unsubscribe links to emails and improving segmentation and automation.

2. How often should my email list be cleaned?

Choose the frequency of email list cleaning based on metrics such as bounce rate and spam complaints.

3. What are best practices to clean email lists?

The best practices include: 1) a double opt-in procedure, 2) unsubscribe buttons; 3) better segmentation criteria; 4) dedicated automation workflows and 5) email list cleaning services.

4. What are the best services for cleaning email lists?

Our top recommendations are: 1) EmailListVerify, 2) Neverbounce, 3) ZeroBounce, 4) QuickEmailVerification, 5) VerifyBee and. Email List Validation.

The post 8 Best Practices in Email List Cleaning for 2023 [+Services] first appeared on Email marketing automation platform for Thriving Business.

Author: Marilia Dimitriou

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